3 marijuana grow houses in Webster are shut down

Craig S. Semon, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

Published Thursday September 26, 2013 at 8:46 pm

WEBSTER — A task force made up of federal, state and local law enforcement officers shut down what they said were three extensive, sophisticated indoor marijuana growing operations and seized 769 marijuana plants with an estimated weight of 150 pounds.

Deip N. Pham, 52, and Nhi T. Le, 42, both of 11 Oakwood Drive; Ut Lee, 33, and Huynh Khuu, 28, both of 56 Blueberry Hill, and Minh H. Bui, 43, of 17 Blueberry Hill, are all charged with trafficking in marijuana, conspiracy to violate drug laws, distribution of marijuana and fraudulent use of electricity. All were arraigned Thursday in Dudley District Court.

Mr. Pham was held on $50,000 bail while Ms. Le, Mr. Lee, Ms. Khuu and Mr. Bui were each held on $10,000 bail. All are due back in court for a pretrial hearing Oct. 24.

Mr. Pham and Ms. Le said to authorities they were boyfriend and girlfriend, while Mr. Lee and Ms. Khuu said they were married to each other.

Mr. Pham, the only one of the five defendants who wished to answer questions, said he was working for someone else, initially, as security and, later on, as the person who waters the plants.

All three marijuana cultivation operations were related to the Lam Ly Drug Trafficking Organization, the police report said.

The warrants were issued after a lengthy federal investigation by the drug trafficking task force and the IRS criminal division in Springfield, according to Webster Police Officer Tobby W. Wheeler's report.

Police said they used visual and electronic surveillance, among other tactics, to crack the case.

Officers found a large indoor marijuana-growing operation in the two-story, wood frame dwelling with an attic and a full basement at 56 Blueberry Hill, according to the police report.

The entire basement space at 56 Blueberry Hill was used for growing marijuana. The basement contained two main grow rooms and an additional smaller grow room that was sectioned off from one of the main grow rooms, the police report said.

The plants that were growing in the main grow rooms at 56 Blueberry Hill were more than three feet high and had buds. The plants in the smaller grow room had smaller plants without buds.

Another small grow room that was found on the second floor contained marijuana plant seedlings. All marijuana plants at 56 Blueberry Hill had a root system, according to the police report.

In all, 489 marijuana plants estimated to be in excess of 50 pounds were seized from 56 Blueberry Hill.

Officers said they also found marijuana-growing operations at 17 Blueberry Hill and 11 Oakwood Drive — 100 plants at 17 Blueberry Hill and 180 at 11 Oakwood Drive. The plants weighed more than 50 pounds at each house, according to the police report.

Approximately $80,000 in cash was seized from the attic of 11 Oakwood Drive. There was also a money counting machine in the residence, police said.

Police said each of the three homes had an extensively altered electrical system, in which each house had been disconnected from the electrical meter. National Grid employees who visited and inspected each site while law enforcement personnel were present found that each household breached the main electrical conduit/line that sends electricity from the roadway to the home, thus bypassing the meter affixed to each house.